Beauty and the Beast Sing-Along Review
Hey Belle, I’m fine not being a guest on this one, thanks!
Rumors say that, somewhere deep inside the French pavilion in Epcot, lies an attraction that many people don’t know about. An attraction that features Belle, the beautiful princess in the yellow dress, who welcomes people to sing along with her for fifteen minutes.
Some people also say that it’s actually Maleficent cosplaying as Belle, as her twisted words try to bring guests away from Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure and spend fifteen minutes sitting down and “singing” in this pretty lackluster theater.
The Good
Let’s get down to it: the Sing-along is the entire animated Beauty and the Beast movie reduced to a 15 minute storyline, with songs thrown in from time to time and captions added for those that want to sing…along. It’s a very similar idea to For the First Time in Forever: A Frozen Sing-Along Celebration in Hollywood Studios, which also features a few karaoke segments with classics from Frozen. Children will still have a good time here, especially fans of Belle and those that spend all day rewatching Beauty and the Beast on Disney+.
The highlight of this attraction is the small area just before entering the theater, where you can view some of the costumes and props featured in the live-action Beauty and the Beast movie. The queue times are also extremely low, and you will more likely than not just walk inside as soon as the movie is ready to play.
The Bad
Well, this Beauty and the Beauty version manages to be worse than For the First Time in Forever: A Frozen Sing-Along Celebration, which by itself is nothing spectacular.
First of all, the Frozen version at least has two cast members who narrate a bit of the storyline and interact with the public. The Beauty and the Beast sing-along is just a regular theater with a lot of scenes from the original movie. There are actually a few original sequences added just for this attraction, but most guests actually don’t like them at all, mostly because this version has LeFou - one of the antagonists of the movie - working behind the scenes to bring Belle and the Beast together. It’s a weird story decision that manages to completely alter the plot of a beloved movie, even if this storyline isn’t considered canon. I think.
I'm also not a fan of how the songs are chopped up and edited oddly here. I get that they can't fit every song in a theater like this, or it would drag on, but the whole point is to sing along, right? Most folks probably expect to hear their favorite tunes and watch kids singing. But "Be Our Guest," a Disney classic, feels disjointed, cutting off abruptly as the story rushes ahead. The same thing happens with “Gaston” and “Beauty and the Beast”. Every song is cut off out of nowhere, which is maddening.
Will Kids enjoy it?
Only diehard Belle fans will like this one. I mean people that cosplay as Belle for Halloween and watch the Beauty and the Beast seventeen times per day. Wait, maybe those people will also hate this one, since LeFou has become a hero and a mastermind that worked to bring Belle and the Beast together for… reasons.
Jokes aside, you might consider bringing your little ones to this theater, but honestly, there are much better choices in Epcot. Simply strolling around the World Showcase would likely be a more enjoyable use of your time, or perhaps seeing if you can snap some photos with Belle elsewhere in the France pavilion. You can also try Frozen Ever After, Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure and Journey of Water featuring Moana.
